FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 9 - 15 FEBRUARY 1976
This week's many stories include the flu virus that was sweeping the town, the lad that rescued his brother from drowning, the Valentine's Day events in St Helens, Rainhill's new one-way and no parking system, the debate over women drinking out of pint glasses and the 19 Pickavance drivers who claimed they'd been sacked for refusing to break the law.
We begin on the 11th when the Kings Singers performed in a sold-out concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. The ensemble had been founded in 1968 and were named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began singing.
From the 12th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near Beecham's, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
"Schools Empty As Virus Strikes" was the front-page headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th that began: "A mystery flu virus has reached epidemic proportions in St. Helens and the surrounding areas. Each day for the past two weeks doctors' surgeries have been inundated with suffering patients and requests to call at homes."
The local schools were not totally empty but certainly their attendance figures had been drastically reduced with some classes only half-full. "Sick rooms have resembled hospital wards while teachers contact parents to collect their children," continued the paper. Parr Flat Junior School, which only a few weeks ago had won a trophy for record attendance levels, was reported as having been severely hit during the previous week, with its headmaster Harry Bates recording the "worst attendance figures in memory".
However, I don't think the medical advice that was being given in 1976 would be repeated today. That was to wait 48 hours to see if aspirin or paracetamol did any good before asking your doctor to make a home visit. One GP said he was concerned that if he didn't attend his patients in their homes, complications might set in.
A curious dispute between Pickavances and their drivers was also making the news. The St Helens haulage firm had sacked 19 of them for what the men claimed was their refusal to break the law. The drivers were working on a site near Manchester and said weather conditions had made a road unsafe, with the police forbidding them from driving on it unless the surface was hosed down.
The drivers claimed that Pickavance's bosses had ordered them not to hose the road, giving them instructions to defy the police, with a promise of the company paying any fines. As a consequence, the police had booked three drivers. But they were concerned of having their licences endorsed and had stopped work, for which they had subsequently been dismissed. However, the company had a different tale to tell claiming the men had refused to follow their instructions and return to St Helens.
The Reporter described how an 8-year-old boy had been saved from drowning in a frozen pond. Andrew Lyon had been skating on a pond at Roughdales quarry, off Lowfield Lane, with 15-year-old Mark Leach of Shakespeare Road and 12-year-old Paul Adamson of Milton Street.
When Andrew's brother Mark (15) and his friend Stephen Cresser (13) arrived at the pond, they shouted warnings to the trio that the ice was too thin to skate on. But their message was too late, for all three lads plummeted into the icy clay pond, as Mark described:
"We shouted to them to get off the pond but before they could the ice broke. Only Andrew's bob-cap was showing above the water." Mark dived in to rescue his brother, whose feet had become tangled in weeds at the bottom of the pond. Meanwhile Stephen, seeing that the other two older boys were in difficulty, waded into the pond and dragged them both out. The two rescuers – both pupils at St Cuthbert's School – were now going to be recommended for bravery awards.
The Reporter also published this piece that began: "Can beer-drinking women be called ladylike if they drink their ale by the pint? Members of Rainhill Hospital's Staff Club think not. The rule of the club is that women can only buy halves of beer for themselves, but several students at the hospital think it is time for a change.
"In a letter to the hospital news sheet they say: ‘Quite a few ladies like their beer, lager or Guinness and in a round with gentlemen they most certainly lose out when the men are drinking pints.’" The Reporter asked club secretary William Stirrup about the rule and he said: "We like to treat a lady like a lady, but it is up to the annual general meeting to decide.
"When this is brought up, an overwhelming majority of women ask us to keep the rule, but if it needs changing then it can be put on the agenda for the A.G.M. in March. It's part of the usual etiquette of the club, like not allowing men into dances wearing jeans or without a tie. I think one has to change with the times, and if there is a genuine desire for change then it will come." Mr Stirrup added that they had spoken to some of the students whose names were on the letter but they had said they knew nothing about it.
The Reporter had some bad news for the residents of the area around Station Road, Tasker Terrace and Victoria Street in Rainhill. They would no longer be able to park their cars in front of their own houses, as St Helens Council was introducing a no-waiting restriction. A one-way system was also coming into force in Station Road, Station Street and Victoria Street.
A spokesman for St Helens Council blamed indiscriminate parking that was causing considerable difficulty to traffic and added: "In Victoria Street, Station Road and Station Street there are bus turn-round facilities, and in order to improve safety and traffic flow a one-way system is being introduced." Local residents had not been consulted over the changes but they would be able to make objections to both schemes before the end of February when they would be introduced.
Whelmar Homes were advertising houses on the new Eccleston Mere estate in the Reporter. Three-bedroom, link-detached houses with garage were available from £11,500.
The Oldham Tinkers (pictured above) performed at the Theatre Royal on the 12th. One of the folk group's most popular songs was "A Mon Like Thee" which had been written by Edmund Hill of St Helens just before the outbreak of WW1. He was a composer of Lancashire dialect poems and songs. Then on the 14th, Kenny Johnson and Northwind performed their brand of country music in Corporation Street.
Also on the 14th, the Fleece Hotel in Church Street held a St Valentine's night featuring the Yakkety Brass, with dancing from 7:30pm until 12:30am. Admission was £1. And a Valentine's Party Night was also held at Françoise of Waterloo Street. The club for the over 20s had been advertising:
"Big prizes and surprises – Faberge promotion and give-away night – Special surprise for anyone having celebration meal – Jimmy James will be here – Fabulous – Go Girls and our special male Go Go dancer – Big balloons and party hats."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the two men and a woman from Broad Oak Road charged with sex offences against children, the bid to save Todd Steels, the Radio Caroline prosecution and the air-rifle snipers that were shooting at cats.
We begin on the 11th when the Kings Singers performed in a sold-out concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. The ensemble had been founded in 1968 and were named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began singing.
From the 12th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near Beecham's, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
"Schools Empty As Virus Strikes" was the front-page headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th that began: "A mystery flu virus has reached epidemic proportions in St. Helens and the surrounding areas. Each day for the past two weeks doctors' surgeries have been inundated with suffering patients and requests to call at homes."
The local schools were not totally empty but certainly their attendance figures had been drastically reduced with some classes only half-full. "Sick rooms have resembled hospital wards while teachers contact parents to collect their children," continued the paper. Parr Flat Junior School, which only a few weeks ago had won a trophy for record attendance levels, was reported as having been severely hit during the previous week, with its headmaster Harry Bates recording the "worst attendance figures in memory".
However, I don't think the medical advice that was being given in 1976 would be repeated today. That was to wait 48 hours to see if aspirin or paracetamol did any good before asking your doctor to make a home visit. One GP said he was concerned that if he didn't attend his patients in their homes, complications might set in.
A curious dispute between Pickavances and their drivers was also making the news. The St Helens haulage firm had sacked 19 of them for what the men claimed was their refusal to break the law. The drivers were working on a site near Manchester and said weather conditions had made a road unsafe, with the police forbidding them from driving on it unless the surface was hosed down.
The drivers claimed that Pickavance's bosses had ordered them not to hose the road, giving them instructions to defy the police, with a promise of the company paying any fines. As a consequence, the police had booked three drivers. But they were concerned of having their licences endorsed and had stopped work, for which they had subsequently been dismissed. However, the company had a different tale to tell claiming the men had refused to follow their instructions and return to St Helens.
The Reporter described how an 8-year-old boy had been saved from drowning in a frozen pond. Andrew Lyon had been skating on a pond at Roughdales quarry, off Lowfield Lane, with 15-year-old Mark Leach of Shakespeare Road and 12-year-old Paul Adamson of Milton Street.
When Andrew's brother Mark (15) and his friend Stephen Cresser (13) arrived at the pond, they shouted warnings to the trio that the ice was too thin to skate on. But their message was too late, for all three lads plummeted into the icy clay pond, as Mark described:
"We shouted to them to get off the pond but before they could the ice broke. Only Andrew's bob-cap was showing above the water." Mark dived in to rescue his brother, whose feet had become tangled in weeds at the bottom of the pond. Meanwhile Stephen, seeing that the other two older boys were in difficulty, waded into the pond and dragged them both out. The two rescuers – both pupils at St Cuthbert's School – were now going to be recommended for bravery awards.
The Reporter also published this piece that began: "Can beer-drinking women be called ladylike if they drink their ale by the pint? Members of Rainhill Hospital's Staff Club think not. The rule of the club is that women can only buy halves of beer for themselves, but several students at the hospital think it is time for a change.
"In a letter to the hospital news sheet they say: ‘Quite a few ladies like their beer, lager or Guinness and in a round with gentlemen they most certainly lose out when the men are drinking pints.’" The Reporter asked club secretary William Stirrup about the rule and he said: "We like to treat a lady like a lady, but it is up to the annual general meeting to decide.
"When this is brought up, an overwhelming majority of women ask us to keep the rule, but if it needs changing then it can be put on the agenda for the A.G.M. in March. It's part of the usual etiquette of the club, like not allowing men into dances wearing jeans or without a tie. I think one has to change with the times, and if there is a genuine desire for change then it will come." Mr Stirrup added that they had spoken to some of the students whose names were on the letter but they had said they knew nothing about it.
The Reporter had some bad news for the residents of the area around Station Road, Tasker Terrace and Victoria Street in Rainhill. They would no longer be able to park their cars in front of their own houses, as St Helens Council was introducing a no-waiting restriction. A one-way system was also coming into force in Station Road, Station Street and Victoria Street.
A spokesman for St Helens Council blamed indiscriminate parking that was causing considerable difficulty to traffic and added: "In Victoria Street, Station Road and Station Street there are bus turn-round facilities, and in order to improve safety and traffic flow a one-way system is being introduced." Local residents had not been consulted over the changes but they would be able to make objections to both schemes before the end of February when they would be introduced.
Whelmar Homes were advertising houses on the new Eccleston Mere estate in the Reporter. Three-bedroom, link-detached houses with garage were available from £11,500.
Also on the 14th, the Fleece Hotel in Church Street held a St Valentine's night featuring the Yakkety Brass, with dancing from 7:30pm until 12:30am. Admission was £1. And a Valentine's Party Night was also held at Françoise of Waterloo Street. The club for the over 20s had been advertising:
"Big prizes and surprises – Faberge promotion and give-away night – Special surprise for anyone having celebration meal – Jimmy James will be here – Fabulous – Go Girls and our special male Go Go dancer – Big balloons and party hats."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the two men and a woman from Broad Oak Road charged with sex offences against children, the bid to save Todd Steels, the Radio Caroline prosecution and the air-rifle snipers that were shooting at cats.
This week's many stories include the flu virus that was sweeping the town, the lad that rescued his brother from drowning, the Valentine's Day events in St Helens, Rainhill's new one-way and no parking system, the debate over women drinking out of pint glasses and the 19 Pickavance drivers who claimed they'd been sacked for refusing to break the law.
We begin on the 11th when the Kings Singers performed in a sold-out concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
The ensemble had been founded in 1968 and were named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began singing.
From the 12th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near Beecham's, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
"Schools Empty As Virus Strikes" was the front-page headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th that began:
"A mystery flu virus has reached epidemic proportions in St. Helens and the surrounding areas. Each day for the past two weeks doctors' surgeries have been inundated with suffering patients and requests to call at homes."
The local schools were not totally empty but certainly their attendance figures had been drastically reduced with some classes only half-full.
"Sick rooms have resembled hospital wards while teachers contact parents to collect their children," continued the paper.
Parr Flat Junior School, which only a few weeks ago had won a trophy for record attendance levels, was reported as having been severely hit during the previous week, with its headmaster Harry Bates recording the "worst attendance figures in memory".
However, I don't think the medical advice that was being given in 1976 would be repeated today.
That was to wait 48 hours to see if aspirin or paracetamol did any good before asking your doctor to make a home visit.
One GP said he was concerned that if he didn't attend his patients in their homes, complications might set in.
A curious dispute between Pickavances and their drivers was also making the news.
The St Helens haulage firm had sacked 19 of them for what the men claimed was their refusal to break the law.
The drivers were working on a site near Manchester and said weather conditions had made a road unsafe, with the police forbidding them from driving on it unless the surface was hosed down.
The drivers claimed that Pickavance's bosses had ordered them not to hose the road, giving them instructions to defy the police, with a promise of the company paying any fines.
As a consequence, the police had booked three drivers. But they were concerned of having their licences endorsed and had stopped work, for which they had subsequently been dismissed.
However, the company had a different tale to tell claiming the men had refused to follow their instructions and return to St Helens.
The Reporter described how an 8-year-old boy had been saved from drowning in a frozen pond.
Andrew Lyon had been skating on a pond at Roughdales quarry, off Lowfield Lane, with 15-year-old Mark Leach of Shakespeare Road and 12-year-old Paul Adamson of Milton Street.
When Andrew's brother Mark (15) and his friend Stephen Cresser (13) arrived at the pond, they shouted warnings to the trio that the ice was too thin to skate on.
But their message was too late, for all three lads plummeted into the icy clay pond, as Mark described:
"We shouted to them to get off the pond but before they could the ice broke. Only Andrew's bob-cap was showing above the water."
Mark dived in to rescue his brother, whose feet had become tangled in weeds at the bottom of the pond.
Meanwhile Stephen, seeing that the other two older boys were in difficulty, waded into the pond and dragged them both out.
The two rescuers – both pupils at St Cuthbert's School – were now going to be recommended for bravery awards.
The Reporter also published this piece that began:
"Can beer-drinking women be called ladylike if they drink their ale by the pint? Members of Rainhill Hospital's Staff Club think not. The rule of the club is that women can only buy halves of beer for themselves, but several students at the hospital think it is time for a change.
"In a letter to the hospital news sheet they say: ‘Quite a few ladies like their beer, lager or Guinness and in a round with gentlemen they most certainly lose out when the men are drinking pints.’"
The Reporter asked club secretary William Stirrup about the rule and he said:
"We like to treat a lady like a lady, but it is up to the annual general meeting to decide. When this is brought up, an overwhelming majority of women ask us to keep the rule, but if it needs changing then it can be put on the agenda for the A.G.M. in March.
"It's part of the usual etiquette of the club, like not allowing men into dances wearing jeans or without a tie. I think one has to change with the times, and if there is a genuine desire for change then it will come."
Mr Stirrup added that they had spoken to some of the students whose names were on the letter but they had said they knew nothing about it.
The Reporter had some bad news for the residents of the area around Station Road, Tasker Terrace and Victoria Street in Rainhill.
They would no longer be able to park their cars in front of their own houses, as St Helens Council was introducing a no-waiting restriction.
A one-way system was also coming into force in Station Road, Station Street and Victoria Street.
A spokesman for St Helens Council blamed indiscriminate parking that was causing considerable difficulty to traffic and added:
"In Victoria Street, Station Road and Station Street there are bus turn-round facilities, and in order to improve safety and traffic flow a one-way system is being introduced."
Local residents had not been consulted over the changes but they would be able to make objections to both schemes before the end of February when they would be introduced.
Whelmar Homes were advertising houses on the new Eccleston Mere estate in the Reporter. Three-bedroom, link-detached houses with garage were available from £11,500.
The Oldham Tinkers (pictured above) performed at the Theatre Royal on the 12th. One of the folk group's most popular songs was "A Mon Like Thee" which had been written by Edmund Hill of St Helens just before the outbreak of WW1. He was a composer of Lancashire dialect poems and songs.
Then on the 14th, Kenny Johnson and Northwind performed their brand of country music in Corporation Street.
Also on the 14th, the Fleece Hotel in Church Street held a St Valentine's night featuring the Yakkety Brass, with dancing from 7:30pm until 12:30am. Admission was £1.
And a Valentine's Party Night was also held at Françoise of Waterloo Street. The club for the over 20s had been advertising:
"Big prizes and surprises – Faberge promotion and give-away night – Special surprise for anyone having celebration meal – Jimmy James will be here – Fabulous – Go Girls and our special male Go Go dancer – Big balloons and party hats."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the two men and a woman from Broad Oak Road charged with sex offences against children, the bid to save Todd Steels, the Radio Caroline prosecution and the air-rifle snipers that were shooting at cats.
We begin on the 11th when the Kings Singers performed in a sold-out concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
The ensemble had been founded in 1968 and were named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began singing.
From the 12th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near Beecham's, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
"Schools Empty As Virus Strikes" was the front-page headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th that began:
"A mystery flu virus has reached epidemic proportions in St. Helens and the surrounding areas. Each day for the past two weeks doctors' surgeries have been inundated with suffering patients and requests to call at homes."
The local schools were not totally empty but certainly their attendance figures had been drastically reduced with some classes only half-full.
"Sick rooms have resembled hospital wards while teachers contact parents to collect their children," continued the paper.
Parr Flat Junior School, which only a few weeks ago had won a trophy for record attendance levels, was reported as having been severely hit during the previous week, with its headmaster Harry Bates recording the "worst attendance figures in memory".
However, I don't think the medical advice that was being given in 1976 would be repeated today.
That was to wait 48 hours to see if aspirin or paracetamol did any good before asking your doctor to make a home visit.
One GP said he was concerned that if he didn't attend his patients in their homes, complications might set in.
A curious dispute between Pickavances and their drivers was also making the news.
The St Helens haulage firm had sacked 19 of them for what the men claimed was their refusal to break the law.
The drivers were working on a site near Manchester and said weather conditions had made a road unsafe, with the police forbidding them from driving on it unless the surface was hosed down.
The drivers claimed that Pickavance's bosses had ordered them not to hose the road, giving them instructions to defy the police, with a promise of the company paying any fines.
As a consequence, the police had booked three drivers. But they were concerned of having their licences endorsed and had stopped work, for which they had subsequently been dismissed.
However, the company had a different tale to tell claiming the men had refused to follow their instructions and return to St Helens.
The Reporter described how an 8-year-old boy had been saved from drowning in a frozen pond.
Andrew Lyon had been skating on a pond at Roughdales quarry, off Lowfield Lane, with 15-year-old Mark Leach of Shakespeare Road and 12-year-old Paul Adamson of Milton Street.
When Andrew's brother Mark (15) and his friend Stephen Cresser (13) arrived at the pond, they shouted warnings to the trio that the ice was too thin to skate on.
But their message was too late, for all three lads plummeted into the icy clay pond, as Mark described:
"We shouted to them to get off the pond but before they could the ice broke. Only Andrew's bob-cap was showing above the water."
Mark dived in to rescue his brother, whose feet had become tangled in weeds at the bottom of the pond.
Meanwhile Stephen, seeing that the other two older boys were in difficulty, waded into the pond and dragged them both out.
The two rescuers – both pupils at St Cuthbert's School – were now going to be recommended for bravery awards.
The Reporter also published this piece that began:
"Can beer-drinking women be called ladylike if they drink their ale by the pint? Members of Rainhill Hospital's Staff Club think not. The rule of the club is that women can only buy halves of beer for themselves, but several students at the hospital think it is time for a change.
"In a letter to the hospital news sheet they say: ‘Quite a few ladies like their beer, lager or Guinness and in a round with gentlemen they most certainly lose out when the men are drinking pints.’"
The Reporter asked club secretary William Stirrup about the rule and he said:
"We like to treat a lady like a lady, but it is up to the annual general meeting to decide. When this is brought up, an overwhelming majority of women ask us to keep the rule, but if it needs changing then it can be put on the agenda for the A.G.M. in March.
"It's part of the usual etiquette of the club, like not allowing men into dances wearing jeans or without a tie. I think one has to change with the times, and if there is a genuine desire for change then it will come."
Mr Stirrup added that they had spoken to some of the students whose names were on the letter but they had said they knew nothing about it.
The Reporter had some bad news for the residents of the area around Station Road, Tasker Terrace and Victoria Street in Rainhill.
They would no longer be able to park their cars in front of their own houses, as St Helens Council was introducing a no-waiting restriction.
A one-way system was also coming into force in Station Road, Station Street and Victoria Street.
A spokesman for St Helens Council blamed indiscriminate parking that was causing considerable difficulty to traffic and added:
"In Victoria Street, Station Road and Station Street there are bus turn-round facilities, and in order to improve safety and traffic flow a one-way system is being introduced."
Local residents had not been consulted over the changes but they would be able to make objections to both schemes before the end of February when they would be introduced.
Whelmar Homes were advertising houses on the new Eccleston Mere estate in the Reporter. Three-bedroom, link-detached houses with garage were available from £11,500.
Then on the 14th, Kenny Johnson and Northwind performed their brand of country music in Corporation Street.
Also on the 14th, the Fleece Hotel in Church Street held a St Valentine's night featuring the Yakkety Brass, with dancing from 7:30pm until 12:30am. Admission was £1.
And a Valentine's Party Night was also held at Françoise of Waterloo Street. The club for the over 20s had been advertising:
"Big prizes and surprises – Faberge promotion and give-away night – Special surprise for anyone having celebration meal – Jimmy James will be here – Fabulous – Go Girls and our special male Go Go dancer – Big balloons and party hats."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the two men and a woman from Broad Oak Road charged with sex offences against children, the bid to save Todd Steels, the Radio Caroline prosecution and the air-rifle snipers that were shooting at cats.